The Party of Rights () was a Croatian nationalist political party in Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, a part of Austria-Hungary at the time.
It was founded in 1861 by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik, two influential nationalist politicians who advocated for the Croatian state right, a greater Croatian autonomy and later for the independence of the Kingdom of Croatia. The party split in 1895. The mainstream known as Domovinaši merged with the Croatian Progressive Party to form the Croatian United Independent Party in 1910. The splinter group known as the Frankists organised the Pure Party of Rights claiming lineage from the Party of Rights.
Early years Founding
The Party of Rights was founded by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik inspired by the French Revolution of 1848. Starčević became disappointed with the suppression of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire and broke existing ties with the Illyrian movement championing the Croatian national revival. He went on to establish the Party of Rights in the aftermath of the 1861 sitting of the Croatian Sabor. On 26 June 1861, in his speech at the assembly, Starčević endorsed earlier Kvaternik's speech at the same venue, supporting his ideas that Croatia deserved a position equal to that of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire by reference to the Croatian state right. Starčević and Kvaternik opposed forging of closer ties between Croatia and Hungary than those existing between Vienna and Budapest. Six years later, the empire was reformed through the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 splitting Croatian lands, between Cisleithania and Transleithania, the Austrian and Hungarian parts of Austria-Hungary. The Compromise and its consequences, including the 1868 Croatian–Hungarian Settlement regulating relations between Hungary and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, were opposed by the Party of Rights.
Rakovica revolt
Kvaternik went into exile in 1863, looking for allies that would support Croatian liberation from Austrian rule by force of arms. He first unsuccessfully sought help from the Russian Empire before turning to France. After meeting Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II in Paris to discuss support for Croatia, Kvaternik wrote () on the topic. He returned to Croatia to work with Starčević editing party newspaper Hervatska in late 1860s. Hervatska was an addition to Zvekan satirical magazine, launched by Starčević as the first party paper. Acting without Starčević's knowledge, Kvaternik went to the Croatian Military Frontier, gathered 400 supporters in the area and started a rebelion against Austro-Hungarian rule that later became known as the Rakovica revolt on 8 October 1872. The uprising was crushed and Kvaternik killed in three days. As a consequence, martial law was introduced in Croatia and Starčević arrested. As a result the Party of Rights was unable to function freely from government control until the 1880s. Starčević retired from politics following suppression of the revolt. He endorsed Fran Folnegović who became the sole Party of Rights candidate elected to the Sabor in 1875. Three years later, Folnegović was reelected and he prompted Starčević to return to politics and the helm of the Party of Rights.
Appointment of Károly Khuen-Héderváry Following the motivated by gradual infringement against Croatia's autonomy, the Hungarian government imposed martial law in Croatia-Slavonia and shortly afterwards appointed Károly Khuen-Héderváry the Ban, effectively the prime minister of Croatia-Slavonia. Khuen-Héderváry's rule was marked by Magyarisation of Croatia in breach of the proclaimed guarantees offered by the Settlement. Khuen-Héderváry ruled with the support of the Sabor majority, largely consisting of the representatives of the People's Party. The parliamentary majority was assured by gerrymandering and suffrage granted to just 2% of the total population – the wealthiest taxpayers and civil servants. Disciplinary measures were introduced to penalise civil servants who voted against the government, and political suitability was a requirement for appointment of civil servants and public notaries. The supporters were provided with government subsidies for their businesses and promised favours of the Hungarian government. Khuen-Héderváry also had the support of Croatian Serbs who formed the Serbian Club within the People's Party. He sought to use the Serbs to redirect hatred of the Croatian population from the regime to Serbs through political favouritism, including enactment of legislation to legalise use of the Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia-Slavonia and partially repealing the law secularising education in relation to schools operated by the Patriarchate of Karlovci. In turn, the Serbs became prominent exponents of Khuen-Héderváry's rule. He exploited political issues related to the Croatian Serbs with the aim of sowing divisions in order to facilitate his rule. As a result of the Ban's policies, divisions between Croats and Serbs deepened.
Khuen-Héderváry enjoyed full support of Emperor Franz Joseph I. During a 1885 visit to Požega and Brod, the emperor said that the Party of Rights was resorting to terrorism in pursuit of its agenda. Conversely, the Party of Rights was trying to frame instances of confrontation with the ban's governing, such as the , as ban's attacks on integrity of imperial officers. By extension, the Party of Rights potrayed the event as an act questioning legality of the imperial rule vainly hoping to render Khuen Héderváry unfit for the office in the eyes of the emperor.
Modern political party Rise of competing factions In late 1880s and early 1890s, factions began to form within the party centered on Folnegović and Josip Frank. Some prominent party figures such as the head of the Club of the Party of Rights Baron Juraj Rukavina Vidovgradski and party leader's nephew David Starčević, criticised both Folnegović and Frank for their willingness to pursue political objectives through various compromises and departure from the struggle for an independent Croatian state. Specifically, both claimed that partial Croatian statehood within Austria-Hungary would be an acceptable political objective. In that respect Folnegović's and Frank's positions differed from political views stated by Ante Starčević before the Rakovica revolt.
In the course of unsuccessful negotiations on potential merger of the Party of Rights and the Independent People's Party, and adoption of the two parties' common political programme in 1894, views held by Folnegović and Frank diverged considerably. Folnegović supported the idea of the merger and accepted some elements of Yugoslavism as political goals, recognising that Croat-Serb conflict was only beneficial to Hungarian encroachment in Croatia. Frank withheld approval of the merger unless the Party of Rights leadership were to dominate the new party. His faction of the Party of Rights intended to entice the House of Habsburg-Lorraine to reform the Empire into a state consisting of three constituent parts, adding a Croatian part of the monarchy carved out of the existing Austrian and Hungarian ones. They rejected Yugoslavism for fear it might lead to establishment of Greater Serbia at the expense of Croatian interests. In response, the faction championed the idea of national expansionism to achieve a Greater Croatia, pursuing a policy of Austro-Croatism. Frank thought Austria might favour Croatian interests because the Empire could no longer expand except in the Balkans. He thought such expansion would be at the expense of Serbia and it would justify an anti-Serbian policy. At the same time, Frank viewed the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as enforcement of a claim to the region under the Croatian state right.
The conflict between the Frank's and Folnegović's factions was often mediated by Ante Trumbić as a prominent member of the Party of Rights Dalmatian chapter. The Dalmatian Party of Rights organisation was formally established in Zadar in 1894. It was formed by three groups of supporters of the Party of Rights: a clericalist group led by , a liberal group led by Trumbić and Frano Supilo, and a group of members of the Diet of Dalmatia led by Juraj Biankini. Thus formed party was initially led by . Regardless of Trumbić's mediation, the rivalry between Folnegović and Frank deepened as both saw themselves as a potential successor to Ante Starčević. While Folnegović had the support of most of the party leading figures and was the longest-serving member of the Sabor in the party, Frank hoped to gain advantage through a closer relationship with Ante Starčević. In that respect, Frank became particularly engaged with construction of the building in Zagreb, hoping to curry favour with the party founder.
Frankist split
On 17 July 1895, the Party of Rights appointed its Central Committee as the body governing the Party of Rights not only in Croatia-Slavonia but also in other territories. Ante Starčević was the Central Committee president, but due to his illness and absence from day-to-day work, Folnegović was in control of the party as the elected vice-president. Members representing the Party of Rights in Croatia-Slavonia were Folnegović, , , , and Vladimir Kovačević with Eugen Kumičić and Vatroslav Brlić elected as deputy members. Istrian member was Vjekoslav Spinčić with Matko Laginja as his deputy; Cezar Akačić with deputy member Rudolf Linić represented Rijeka. Dalmatian Party of Rights organisation's representatives were Trumbić and Supilo while Prodan was their deputy. Slovene lands representative was Ivan Tavčar, and was his deputy. Bosnia was represented by Miho Babić, and Herzegovina by Frano Miličević.
Folnegović ensured that his opponents Mile Starčević and Frank were left out, or appointed to lower-tier positions in the committee. At the same time, Folnegović helped Trumbić and Supilo who supported his political views to become full members of the committee. Frank remained the main opponent of Folnegović, accusing the Central Committee of being a device of betrayal of the Party of Rights. Ante Starčević supported Frank in levying the accusations against Folnegović. The same year, new leadership of the Club of the Party of Rights was also elected. Folnegović ran for the president, with Tuškan nominated as his vice-president. Even though Frank and his vice-presidential nominee Kumičić were supported by Ante Starčević, Folnegović and Tuškan won. The defeat left Frank embittered.
On 22 October 1895, the party split. The split in the Party of Rights among Folnegović's and Frank's supporters produced the minority faction known as the Frankists () and the mainstream, Homeland faction (), named after Frank and the party newspaper (). The immediate cause for the split was Folnegović's speech in which he distanced the party from violence at the occasion of the 1895 visit by Emperor Franz Joseph to Zagreb. In particular, two people involved in the violence were Frank's sons Vladimir and Ivo. The Dalmatian Party of Rights initially condemned the 1895 split and claimed to support neither the Domovinaši nor the Frankists. Three years later, in 1898, the Dalmatian Party of Rights split when a new party was formed by Prodan's supporters.
Domovinaši Tuškan presidency